Euripides' HELEN Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

Euripides Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Euripides in Print

90 pages - You are on Page 54

Leader: On thee, maiden, it rests to judge between these arguments.
Decide in such a way as to please one and all.

Theonoe: My nature and my inclination lean towards piety; myself,
too, I respect, and I will never sully my father's fair name, or gratify
my brother at the cost of bringing myself into open dishonour. For
justice hath her temple firmly founded in my nature, and since I have
this heritage from Nereus I will strive to save Menelaus; wherefore,
seeing it is Hera's will to stand thy friend, I will give my vote
with her. May Cypris be favourable to me! though in me she hath no
part, and I will try to remain a maid alway. As for thy reproaches
against my father at this tomb; lo! I have the same words to utter;
I should be wronging thee, did I not restore thy wife; for my sire,
were he living, would have given her back into thy keeping, and thee
to her. Yea, for there is recompense for these things as well amongst
the dead as amongst all those who breathe the breath of life. The
soul indeed of the dead lives no more, yet hath it a consciousness
that lasts for ever, eternal as the ether into which it takes the
final plunge. Briefly then to end the matter, I will observe strict
silence on all that ye prayed I should, and never with my counsel
will I aid my brother's wanton will. For I am doing him good service,
though he little thinks it, if turn him from his godless life to holiness.
Wherefore devise yourselves some way of escape; my lips are scaled;
I will not cross your path. First with the goddesses begin, and of
the one,-and that one Cypris,-Crave permission to return unto thy
country; and of Hera, that her goodwill may abide in the same quarter,
even her scheme to save thee and thy husband. And thou, my own dead
sire, shalt never, in so far as rests with me, lose thy holy name
to rank with evil-doers.
(Theonoe and her attendants enter the palace.)

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